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Scorpion (episode)
On the edge of Borg space, Voyager encounters an alien race even more powerful than the Borg. (Season Finale) Summary On the edge of Borg territory, which consists of thousands of systems, the crew discovers a narrow passage devoid of Borg activity. Dubbed the "Northwest Passage," it is filled with gravometric distortions, but as Tom Paris puts it, "Better to ride the rapids than face the Hive." While the Northwest Passage appears safe, Janeway tells the crew that a confrontation with the Borg may be inevitable and instructs them to prepare for one. While Kes and The Doctor work on an antibody to combat the Borg assimilation nanoprobes, she has a vision of dozens of Borg corpses. Kes's premonition is followed by several more concerning the death of Borg and Voyager's destruction. Before Janeway can react, however, Harry Kim announces that fifteen Borg cubes are headed their way. The crew prepare for a fight but the cubes pass them by. As Janeway and Chakotay discuss the possibility that Voyager will be forced to remain in the Delta Quadrant, Tuvok informs them that the Borg ships' power signatures have stopped and the armada is dead in space. They follow the cubes' path only to discover that most of the cubes have been destroyed. There is an alien bioship attached to the hull of one of the remaining cubes. Chakotay, Tuvok, and Kim beam aboard the cube to investigate, where they see the same image Kes described: dozens of Borg corpses piled on top of one another. They see no aliens but can hear roars coming from elsewhere within the cube. As they scan the bioship, Kes has a vision of Harry screaming in pain. B'Elanna Torres beams the away team back with a "skeletal lock," but not before the alien returns and injures Harry just as Kes predicted. The bioship detaches itself from the Borg cube and fires at Voyager but does not pursue it. Kes can hear the telepathic alien say, "The weak will perish." Despite the new threat, Janeway decides Voyager must maintain its original course as the Northwest Passage is only a day away. The Doctor discovers along the way that an infection caused by cells from the alien is consuming Harry's body. He is unable to combat the infection with traditional medicine but thinks he can modify Borg nanoprobes to destroy the alien cells; however, it may be too late for Harry. Meanwhile, Tuvok and B'Elanna discover that the Borg call the alien Species 8472 and have been defeated by it several times. Upon reaching the Northwest Passage, Voyager is greeted by over a hundred bioships. As before, Kes is able to hear the aliens say, "The weak will perish." They are arriving through some kind of quantum singularity, although it is unclear where they come from, and intend to destroy everything. Janeway considers the possibilities and comes up with a radical idea: an alliance with the Borg. Her plan is to offer The Doctor's cure to the Borg but withhold it until the Borg escort Voyager through their space. The crew does not question Janeway's judgment, but once the rest are gone, Chakotay admits he thinks what the captain is proposing is too great a risk. Voyager travels to the nearest Borg star system, where a cube announces that it will assimilate the ship and places a tractor beam on it. Janeway explains the situation and the cube beams her aboard it. She and the Collective's voice are close to coming to an agreement when a quantum singularity emerges and ten bioships emerge. Ignoring several Borg cubes, the bioships head straight for a nearby planet. They emit a massive energy burst that obliterates the entire planet, and the cube, with Voyager in tow, narrowly escapes the resulting explosion. Background Information *"Scorpion" gets its name from an anecdote Chakotay shares with Janeway. After briefing the crew on her plan to form a temporary alliance with the Borg, Janeway asks Chakotay his personal opinion and he relates a story from his childhood: :A scorpion was wandering along the bank of the river, wondering how to get to the other side. Suddenly he saw a fox. He asked the fox to take him across the river. The fox said, "No. If I do that, you'll sting me and I'll drown." The scorpion assured him, "If I did that, we'd both drown." The fox thought about it and finally agreed. So the scorpion climbed up on his back and the fox began to swim. But halfway across the river, the scorpion stung him. As the poison filled his veins, the fox turned to the scorpion and said, "Why did you do that? Now you'll drown too." "I couldn't help it," said the scorpion. "It's my nature." *This episode marks the final appearance of Jennifer Lien (Kes) as a regular cast member. *The robot that Leonardo Da Vinci is working on in Captain Janeway's holodeck program of his workshop is based off of real work that Da Vinci did. Although the final drawings of the robot are lost (if they ever existed), preliminary sketches have been input into computer simulations which confirm that they were indeed meant to be a mechanical man. While the sketches were known of, it was not until the 1950s that a professor from the University of California realized what they were meant to be. For more information, please see http://www.lairweb.org.nz/leonardo/jib.html Links and References Guest Stars *John Rhys-Davies as Leonardo Da Vinci *Sue Henley as Brooks (uncredited) References Achilles; Amasov; assimilation tubule; Battle of Wolf 359; bioship; Borg Collective; Borg cube; Breen; Chakotay; [[USS Endeavour|USS ''Endeavour]]; [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)]]; fluidic space; goose grease; gravimetric distortions; Hickman; Hephaestus; Hercules; Kathryn Janeway; Kes; Harry Kim; nanoprobe; "Northwest Passage"; Jean-Luc Picard; polaron beam; scudi; Species 8472; Species 8472 bioship; Tale of the Scorpion; telepathy; transwarp; Wolf 359 Category:VOY episodes de:Skorpion, Teil I nl:Scorpion, Deel I